Unsharpness

Abstract: This paper presents physical and metrological characterization measurements conducted for an industrial x-ray micro-computed tomography (CT) system. As is well known in CT metrology, many factors, e.g., in the scanning and reconstruction process, the image processing, and the 3D data evaluation, influence the dimensional measurement properties of the system as a whole. Therefore, it is important to know what leads to, and what are the consequences of, e.g., a geometrical misalignment of the scanner system, image unsharpness (blurring), or noise or image artefacts. In our study, the two main components of a CT scanner, i.e. the x-ray tube and the flat-panel detector, are characterized. The contrast and noise transfer property of the scanner is obtained using image-processing methods based on linear systems theory. A long-term temperature measurement in the scanner cabinet has been carried out. The dimensional measurement property has been quantified by using a calibrated ball-bar and uncertainty budgeting. Information about the performance of a CT scanner system in terms of contrast and noise transmission and sources of geometrical errors will help plan CT scans more efficiently. In particular, it will minimize the user's influence by a systematic line of action, taking into account the physical and technical limitations and influences on dimensional measurements.

Abstract: We devised a new, simple technique for measuring the modulation transfer function (MTF) of a digital imaging system by using an image of an angulated slit. With this technique, the "presampling" analog MTF, which includes the geometric unsharpness, the detector unsharpness, and the unsharpness of the sampling aperture, can be measured even beyond the Nyquist frequency. A single-frame image of a slightly angulated slit was employed in order to obtain Fourier transforms of line spread functions at different alignments. The presampling MTF was determined by averaging the two Fourier transforms which we obtained from two extreme alignments (center and shifted) of the slit relative to the sampling coordinate. The presampling MTFs of our digital subtraction angiographic system were determined in two orthogonal directions for three different image-intensifier modes.

Abstract: Detector characterization with modulation transfer function (MTF) and detective quantum efficiency (DQE) inadequately predicts image quality when the imaging system includes focal spot unsharpness and patient scatter. The concepts of MTF, noise power spectrum, noise equivalent quanta and DQE were referenced to the object plane and generalized to include the effect of geometric unsharpness due to the finite size of the focal spot and the effect of the spatial distribution and magnitude of x-ray scatter due to the patient. The generalized quantities provide performance characteristics that consider the complete imaging system, but reduce to a description of the detector properties without magnification or scatter. We have evaluated a new neurovascular angiography imaging system based on a region of interest (ROI) microangiographic detector using these generalized quantities. A uniform head-equivalent phantom was used as a filter and x-ray scatter source. This allowed the study of all properties of the detector under clinically relevant x-ray spectra and x-ray scatter conditions. Realistic focal spots (0.8 mm nominal), beam energies (60-100 kVp), and detector exposures (0.8-2.3 mR) were used, and the effects of different scatter fractions (0-0.62) resulting from changing the beam size (0-100 cm2) were investigated. The generalized MTF and DQE were found to have very little dependence on the tube voltage and the detector entrance exposure. Magnification, with the focal spot used, results in a large decrease of the generalized DQE at higher frequencies (about 100-fold at 10 cycles/mm), but a significantly smaller decrease at lower frequencies. Scatter on the other hand, causes a constant drop in the generalized DQE (factor of 3 for scatter fraction 0.3) for all frequencies. Our results show that there are tradeoffs in the choice of the different system parameters; therefore this methodology of studying the imaging system as a whole could provide guidance in system design.

Abstract: The notion of a perceptual space is useful for characterizing images in terms of their perceptual image quality. It is shown that images degraded by blur and noise can be assigned positions in a multidimensional perceptual space and that quality and its underlying attributes sharpness and noisiness can be associated with directions (or vectors) in this space. The perceptual space is constructed using multidimensional scaling (MDS) techniques. Two different MDS approaches are used, one making use of the perceived dissimilarity between the images and another making use of the scaled perceptual attributes sharpness and noisiness. The two alternative approaches lead to stimulus configurations that can be approximately related by a linear transformation, and the results from both MDS approaches can be combined to produce one perceptual space for each scene. A two-dimensional perceptual space adequately represents the processed images for all three scenes that are used, and the perceptual spaces obtained for all scenes are very similar. The directions of the attribute vectors in the perceptual space indicate that unsharpness and noisiness are approximately orthogonal attributes, which implies that there is little interaction between these attributes. The impairment vector, whose direction is opposite to that of the quality vectors, lies between the unsharpness and noisiness vectors at an angle of approximately 30° between the unsharpness and impairment vectors.